Social Work Reflective Essay

The first quality that I think is critical in being an effective social worker is empathy. I think to care, and understand the needs of clients, empathy is essential. The second quality is the motivation to help clients with support and guidance. For instance, this involves participating in self-care to better serve clients. I also think that this consists of not giving up on a client, and staying proactive in helping the client change his or her behavior. The third quality that I think is critical is openness to new people and opportunities. There are plenty of people and situations that could occur in social work, therefore social workers should not be narrow minded when interacting with clients or associating with other agencies. The fourth …show more content…
For instance, I think being honest and genuine is more effective when helping a client. In addition, I think some clients can see through any fake emotion or expression. I have also admired the strength other social workers possess in the field. For instance, I have not interacted with social workers who appeared to be burned out. I think participating in self-care may have contributed to the lack of burnout that I viewed among social workers. Moreover, I think my greatest strengths are my determination, passion, empathy and being proactive in social work. I think these strengths are essential in social work because of the diversity in the field. For example, for me having determination and passion motivates me to continue to interact with patients or clients. Empathy, I think helps me understand more about myself and others. In addition, for me being proactive opens me to new experiences, and more opportunities in social work. Furthermore, my greatest areas of growth are learning about different resources to assist clients as well as utilizing different intervention strategy. For instance, when a patient asks me about a service I often have to research, or ask someone else, which can be time consuming. In addition, I think learning more about different interventions will help me better assess future clients or